Vale: Val Doonican

Irish entertainer Val Doonican, who hosted The Val Doonican Show for 21 years, has died, aged 88.

He died “peacefully” at a nursing home in Buckinghamshire.

Doonican’s self-titled variety show ran from 1965 to 1986, featuring his own performances and guest artists. The show, known for its trademark rocking chair, colourful jumpers and cardigans, also aired in Australia. Doonican also filmed some 25 Christmas specials.

He was also rarely out of the UK charts in the 1960s and ’70s with songs like Walk Tall and Elusive Butterfly. He had five successive top 10 albums and even knocked The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band off the top spot in 1967.

In a statement, his family said: “He was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather and will be greatly missed by family, friends and his many fans.”

Sir Bruce Forsyth said, “He had this way of relaxing his co-stars and his audience and that went right through the screens into your homes.

“It’s not simple to do what he did. To be relaxed as he was is an art. You can’t go in front of millions of people on television and be that relaxed and that good.”

Source: BBC